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For a franchise with an extensive recent history of choking in the big game, there’s one obvious question to be asked as the Calgary Stampeders prepare for Sunday’s CFL West Final …

What did you learn from last year?

What did you learn from a humbling 35-13 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders that saw a stellar 14-4 squad puke up any chance of a Grey Cup appearance by turning the ball over seven times?

“Don’t fumble the ball — simple as that,” said Stampeders head coach John Hufnagel.

“You always stress it. We’ve always been a good team protecting the football, so it was one of those things you can’t ignore but you emphasize going forward.”

In a game that saw the Stamps fall behind early with temperatures hovering around -10 C, the Stamps appeared on three separate occasions to be kick-starting a comeback only to have three massive offensive plays all negated by fumbles in the second and third quarters.

“Just understand one yard isn’t worth it,” said Stamps veteran Nik Lewis when asked how a team can practice preventing turnovers.

“Sometimes, you get loose with it, and you want to go for that extra yard. If you want that extra yard, man up and take someone on one-on-one. Don’t stretch it out. Sometimes, you just need to make a couple plays to get that momentum back, and you don’t have to do it all at once. Last year, it was all guys making great plays over 40 yards but then fumbling. If we get field-goals on all those drives, it’s 22-22 going into the fourth quarter. Instead, we’re down nine and lacking momentum. Guys just need to understand those plays are enough. You don’t have to do anything special.”

Environment Canada is calling for temperatures around freezing for kickoff Sunday afternoon against the visiting Edmonton Eskimos, which should help the CFL’s most skilled squad from being neutralized by arctic climes that have cost this franchise more than a few West Finals.

Last year marked the seventh time in 11 West Finals the first-place Stamps failed to deliver.

“When the weather is cold, I’m not going to say, ‘don’t go for extra yards.’ But that ball has to be at a premium, because offensively, it’s tougher to be consistent,” said Stamps offensive coordinator Dave Dickenson, whose club had just 10 first downs in last year’s West Final.

“You just aren’t as sharp offensively in colder weather — you don’t make as many plays, so you have to take greater care of the football. You have to make sure you play the right way because bad weather limits your skill.”

You don’t have to be Vince Lombardi to realize the team that wins the turnover battle wins more than 80% of the time, which is what has to be so frustrating for the league’s top coaching staff, which has always focused on ball control.

“We stressed it hard, but sometimes when you talk so much about something you forget what you’re there for — to play physical and fast and aggressive football, and you want to score,” Dickenson said. “But you don’t want to sacrifice the football to do that, and I think that’s what we did last year. We got looser. It happens.”

Agreed, said Stamps quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell, who knows the Eskimos will be focused on stripping the ball even more this week.

“We’re not blind to it – we know the reason we lost that game,” said Mitchell, whose squad led the league in turnover ratio with him at the helm for his first full season. “I think we learned more from the bye-week the way we attacked it. Last year, we were being a little complacent and not pushing as hard. That’s why this year, we turned it into a work week, making sure we had three practices, and we were in the weight-room and the film-room. Guys didn’t go home and have vacation time. We wanted to keep everybody here in the locker room and focus on football.”